Audit Commission

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the cost was of the Audit Commission in each of the last 20 financial years.

Bob Neill: This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission and I have asked the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the right hon. Member direct.
	Letter from Eugene Sullivan, dated 14 May 2012
	Your Parliamentary Question has been passed to me to reply.
	The costs of the Commission include the costs of auditing local public bodies including those audited by private firms under contract to the Commission, the Commission's central costs and from 1998/99 to 2010/11 the costs of carrying out inspections and assessments of local public services and registered social landlords.
	The cost of the Audit Commission in each of the last 20 financial years (taken from the Commission's annual accounts which are laid before Parliament each year) was:
	
		
			 Financial year £000 
			 1992/93 74,221 
			 1993/94 82,740 
			 1994/95 88,960 
			 1995/96 92,592 
			 1996/97 93,381 
			 7 months to October 1997 60,676 
			 1997/98 105,703 
			 1998/99 111,620 
			 1999/2000 144,145 
			 2000/01 178,755 
			 2001/02 214,032 
			 17 months to March 2004 325,789 
			 2004/05 234,801 
			 2005/06 196,537 
			 2006/07 219,605 
			 2007/08 202,900 
			 2008/09 204,777 
			 2009/10(1) 222,520 
		
	
	
		
			 2010/11(2) 206,116 
			 2011/12(3) 162,457 
			 (1) Includes redundancy costs of £5.3 million. (2) Includes redundancy costs of £25.8 million. (3) Unaudited draft annual accounts, including estimated redundancy costs of £20.0 million. 
		
	
	The Commission changed its financial year end in 1997 from March to October. So there are a set of accounts for the period 1 April to 31 October 1997 and a set from 1 November to 31 October 1998. Our financial year end was changed again in 2004, so the period 2002-2004 is for 17 months, from 1 November 2002 to 31 March 2004.

Energy

David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment his Department has made of the potential effects of fracking on the UK energy market over the next 10 years.

Charles Hendry: A British Geological Survey study in 2010 estimated that if UK shales were similar to those in the USA they could yield some 150 billion cubic metres of gas, equivalent to roughly two years' of UK demand. The BGS is currently undertaking a more detailed analysis, taking account of the latest information, of the extent of prospectively gas-bearing shales in the UK and the potential resources, that is, the amount of gas which might be contained in these rocks.
	However, as little drilling or testing has taken place, it is not at this stage possible to make meaningful estimates of how much of the resource may be technically and economically recoverable. It is therefore too early to make any useful estimates of the potential contribution shale gas might make to the UK energy market over the next 10 years.
	As far as the global effects of shale gas production are concerned, I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) on 25 November 2011, Official Report, column 617W.

Aviation

Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent representations she has received about difficulties faced by musicians wishing to carry their musical instruments on airplanes.

Theresa Villiers: The Department has received a small number of representations in the last year on this issue. Our advice remains to all passengers, including musicians, to check airlines terms and conditions of carriage relating to baggage prior to booking and choose an airline that best suits their particular needs.

Birds of Prey: Conservation

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether she has made an assessment of the future development of Natural England's hen harrier recovery project; and what funding from the public purse has been allocated to this project in 2012-13.

Richard Benyon: DEFRA is working closely with Natural England to develop conservation work for hen harriers, building on Natural England's hen harrier recovery project, In 2012-13 Natural England has allocated one full-time member of staff and £15,000 to the Upland Hen Harrier Recovery Project which carries out research on and monitoring of hen harriers in England. This project uses satellite tagging and co-ordinates a network of volunteer raptor workers. In addition, Natural England contributes to two partnership projects: the Environment Council facilitated Hen Harrier Dialogue Working Group; and £17,138 and staff time to the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project, which aims to find effective means of resolving conflicts between raptors and grouse moor management.

Birds of Prey: Conservation

Fiona O'Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps her Department has taken to reduce persecution of hen harriers under the Wildlife Crime Priority for raptor persecution.

Richard Benyon: DEFRA co-chairs the UK wildlife crime tasking and co-ordinating group, where it has supported the inclusion of raptor persecution as a wildlife crime priority for the last four years. The hen harrier is one of six priority species for wildlife crime action.
	In 2011 DEFRA stepped up its involvement by participating in the police-led raptor persecution wildlife crime priority delivery group. The group's objective is to raise, community trust and awareness to encourage intelligence and incident reporting, which should in turn lead to prevention and enforcement activity for raptor persecution.

Entry Clearances

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were granted an investment visa in each of the last five years.

Damian Green: The available statistics relate to the number of visas granted in the work route Tier 1 Investors (excluding EEA nationals). The statistics are given in the table and are published in table be.04, in the Home Office statistical release 'Immigration Statistics'.
	These data may include individuals who have not yet entered the country and some who have subsequently left the country. Individuals could be counted more than once within the data.
	A copy of the latest release, ‘Immigration Statistics October—December 2011', is available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Science, research and statistics web pages at:
	http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/science-research/research-statistics/migration/migration-statistics1/
	
		
			 Entry clearance visas issued—(Tier 1) Investors 
			  Main applicants Dependants 
			 2007 n/a n/a 
			 2008 43 95 
			 2009 153 282 
			 2010 211 372 
			 2011 331 529 
			 n/a = Not applicable. Notes: 1. Provisional figures. 2. Figures are numbers of visas granted. Source: Table be.04, ‘Immigration Statistics October—December 2011’, Migration Statistics, Home Office, February 2012

Apprentices: Disability

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what guidelines Jobcentre Plus have been given for supporting young disabled people to access apprenticeships.

Chris Grayling: When claimants express an interest in an apprenticeship vacancy Jobcentre Plus sign posts the individual to the National Apprenticeship website. The guidance contained in this site directs the claimant to an online web inquiry form which facilitates the application process.
	If the claimant is disabled and requires additional help, Jobcentre Plus will utilise the services available through Access to Work to ensure that appropriate assistance and adjustments, over and above what would be reasonable for an employer to pay, are provided. This support is available to all those who receive a salary, including those on apprenticeships.

Employment and Support Allowance: Warrington

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Warrington North constituency are in the support group for employment and support allowance.

Chris Grayling: The information requested is given as follows.
	
		
			 Employment and support allowance (ESA) claimants—Warrington North constituency, August 2011 
			  Number 
			 All ESA recipients 1,240 
			 Of which:  
			 Are in the Support Group 110 
			 Notes: 1.Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Employment and support allowance (ESA) replaced incapacity benefit and income support paid on the grounds of incapacity for new claims from 27 October 2008. 3. Phase of ESA claim is derived from payment details held on the source system. The three phases are Assessment phase, Work Related Activity phase and Support Group phase. 4. This information is published on our tabulation tool at: http://83.244.183.180/100pc/tabtool.html Source: DWP Information, Governance and Security Directorate Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100% data

Electronic Tagging

Elizabeth Truss: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was paid to each service provider of electronic monitoring services in each of the last three years.

Crispin Blunt: The following table shows the amounts paid by the Ministry of Justice to G4S plc and Serco Group plc to provide electronic monitoring services in each of the last three financial years. These figures do not include payments made by the United Kingdom Border Agency direct to the service providers for providing services in immigration cases.
	
		
			 £ million (inc VAT) 
			  2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 
			 SERCO plc 40.7 46.1 54.6 
			 G4S plc 53.2 55.5 62.3

Prisoners: Foreign Nationals

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many foreign national prisoners there are in UK prisons; what the highest number has been; and how many there were in May 2005.

Crispin Blunt: Numbers of foreign national prisoners are published quarterly. On 31 March 2012 (latest available) the foreign national prisoner population in England and Wales was 11,127. The highest quarterly number was 11,546 on 31 December 2009. On 30 June 2005, the population was 9,651.
	Issues arising in Scotland and Northern Ireland are matters for the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive respectively.
	These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Young Offender Institutions: Greater Manchester

Yvonne Fovargue: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many additional days of imprisonment were awarded to children in Hindley Young Offender Institution by an outside adjudicator for breaches of prison rules in each month of the last two years;
	(2)  what the ethnicity is of each child awarded additional days of imprisonment by outside adjudicators in Hindley Young Offender Institution in each month of the last two years;
	(3)  how many cases have been referred to an outside adjudicator for breaches of prison rules in Hindley Young Offender Institution in each month of the last two years.

Crispin Blunt: Table 1 shows the ethnicity of each person awarded additional days of imprisonment by outside adjudicators in Hindley under 18 Young Offender Institution in each month from January 2010 to April 2012. This excludes 18-year-olds at Hindley (106747).
	The second table (Table 2) shows how many additional days of imprisonment were awarded to people in Hindley under 18 Young Offender Institution by an outside adjudicator for breaches of prison rules in each month from January 2010 to April 2012. This excludes 18-year-olds at Hindley (106746).
	The third table (Table 3) shows how many cases were referred to an outside adjudicator for breaches of prison rules in Hindley under 18 Young Offender Institution in each month from January 2010 to April 2012 (106748).
	This data has been provided by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and the Youth Justice Board (YJB) from Hindley Young Offender Institution (YOI).
	These figures have been drawn from YOI records, as such they are subject to possible recording errors and can be subject to change over time.
	
		
			 Table 1: Ethnicity of each person awarded additional days of imprisonment by outside adjudicators in Hindley Young Offender Institution in each month from January 2010  to  April 2012 
			  W1 W2 W9 M1 M2 M3 M9 A1 A2 A3 A9 B1 B2 B9 O1 O9 Total 
			 2010                  
			 January — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 February — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 March — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 April — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 May — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 June — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 July — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 August — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 September — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 October — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 November — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 December — — — 1 — — — — — — — — — — — — 1 
			 2011                  
			 January — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 February 1 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 1 
			 March 1 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 1 
			 April 1 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 1 
			 May — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 
			 June 1 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 1 
			 July 3 — — — — — — — — — — 1 — — — — 4 
			 August 1 — — — — — — — — — — 1 — — — — 2 
			 September 1 — — 1 — — — — — — — 1 — 1 — — 4 
			 October 1 — — — — — — — — — — 1 — — — — 2 
			 November 2 — — — — — — — — — — 1 — — — — 3 
			 December 5 — — — 2 — — — — — — — — — — — 7 
			 2012                  
			 January — — — — 1 — — — — — — — — — — — 1 
			 February 4 — — — — — 1 — — — — — — — — — 5 
			 March 9 — — — — — — — — — — — 2 — — — 11 
			 April 3 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — 3 
			 Notes: 1. Ethnicity key: W1: White – British W2: White – Irish W9: White - Other White M1: Mixed - White and Black Caribbean M2: Mixed - White and Black African M3: Mixed - White and Asian M9: Mixed - Other Mixed A1: Asian or Asian British - Indian A2: Asian or Asian British - Pakistani A3: Asian or Asian British - Bangladeshi A9: Asian or Asian British - Other Asian B1: Black or Black British - Caribbean B2: Black or Black British - African B9: Black or Black British - Other Black O1: Chinese - Chinese O9: Other Ethnic Group - Any Other 2. This table covers 10-17 year olds at Hindley. No 18 year old received any additional days for breaches of prison rules in this time period. 3. These figures have been drawn from YOI records, as such they are subject to possible recording errors and can be subject to change over time. 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 2: Number of additional days of imprisonment awarded to people in Hindley Young Offender Institution by an outside adjudicator for breaches of prison rules in each month from January 2010 to April 2012 
			  Number 
			 2010  
			 January 0 
			 February 0 
			 March 0 
			 April 0 
			 May 0 
			 June 0 
			 July 0 
			 August 0 
			 September 0 
			 October 0 
			 November 0 
			 December 14 
			 2011  
			 January 0 
			 February 5 
			 March 31 
			 April 10 
			 May 0 
			 June 0 
			 July 25 
			 August 35 
			 September 49 
			 October 35 
			 November 38 
			 December 58 
			 2012  
			 January 15 
			 February 59 
			 March 70 
			 April 14 
			 Notes: 1. This table covers 10-17 year olds at Hindley. No 18 year old received any additional days for breaches of prison rules in this time period. 2. These figures have been drawn from YOI records, as such they are subject to possible recording errors and can be subject to change over time. 
		
	
	
		
			 Table 3: Number of cases referred to an outside adjudicator for breaches of prison rules in Hindley Young Offender Institution in each month from January 2010  to  April 2012 
			  Number 
			 2010  
			 January 0 
			 February 0 
			 March 0 
			 April 0 
			 May 0 
			 June 0 
			 July 0 
			 August 0 
			 September 0 
			 October 0 
			 November 0 
			 December 1 
			 2011  
			 January 0 
			 February 1 
			 March 4 
			 April 2 
			 May 0 
			 June 1 
			 July 4 
			 August 2 
			 September 4 
		
	
	
		
			 October 2 
			 November 3 
			 December 7 
			 2012  
			 January 2 
			 February 5 
			 March 11 
			 April 3 
			 Notes: 1. This table covers 10-17 year olds at Hindley. 2. One 18 year old was referred to an outside adjudicator however the individual left the establishment before the case was heard and is not included in the above figures. 3. These figures have been drawn from YOI records, as such they are subject to possible recording errors and can be subject to change over time.

Civil Service Learning

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many staff are employed by Civil Service Learning; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: Civil Service Learning was established in April 2011 in response to a wide ranging review of learning and development in the civil service. The review recognised the need for the civil service to obtain better value for the taxpayer from its investment in learning and development, reduce the duplication in learning procurement and make greater use of the external market to provide training. In 2009-10, £275 million was spent on training and development across the civil service. From 2012-13, the work of Civil Service Learning will contribute to annual savings for the taxpayer of £90 million against this baseline.
	In 2009 there were approximately 2,000 people engaged in the design and delivery of generic training and development across the civil service—now there are around 300. At 10 May 2012, Civil Service Learning employed 60 of these 300 staff.

Civil Service Learning

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the budget is for Civil Service Learning in 2012-13; and if he will make a statement.

Francis Maude: Civil Service Learning was established in April 2011 in response to a wide ranging review of learning and development in the Civil Service. The review recognised the need for the Civil Service to obtain better value for the taxpayer from its investment in learning and development, reduce the duplication in learning procurement and make greater use of the external market to provide training. In 2009-10, £275 million was spent on training and development across the civil service. By centralising learning and development provision, the work of Civil Service Learning will contribute to annual savings from 2012-13 for the taxpayer of £90 million against this baseline.
	Civil Service Learning's operational budget for 2012-13 is £9.5 million.

Fraud

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much and what proportion of the estimate of public sector fraud measured by the National Fraud Authority has been (a) specifically identified and (b) recovered (i) in total and (ii) by each department in each of the last three years.

Francis Maude: Since January 2011, as part of this Government's determination to collect coherent management information, departments have been required to report their losses relating to fraud, error and uncollected debt through 'Quarterly Data Summaries' (QDS). There is no centrally collected data on detected fraud between April 2009 and January 2011.
	Figures of detected fraud and error are published in departmental QDS returns and this information is available on their websites.
	These figures cannot be expressed as a proportion of 'estimated' public sector fraud losses published in the National Fraud Authority's Annual Fraud Indicator as the definitions used, and the years to which these figures relate are not comparable.
	We expect the figure for fraud in the QDS to increase as departments get better at identifying it.

Fraud

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what measures his Department uses to assess the effectiveness of cross-governmental steps to tackle public sector fraud; and what benchmarking work has taken place to inform this work.

Francis Maude: For years the Government has lost billions of pounds of taxpayers' money per annum through fraud, error and debt. My department is determined to address this. We estimate that, by 2015, the Government could save as much as £4 billion per year by taking more effective measures to tackle fraud, error and debt.
	One of the cornerstones of the approach we are taking through the work of the Fraud, Error and Debt Taskforce, which I established in October 2010, is to strengthen the focus on prevention as a means of tackling fraud and error. In February this year, we published a report setting out measures that we will be taking which include requirements that:
	by December 2013, all government departments, agencies and non-departmental public bodies will undertake a spend recovery audit on their accounts payable system; and
	by March 2015, government departments that administer benefits, grants and other payment systems will screen applications before payment is made, rather than paying without checking.
	The Taskforce will be monitoring progress in implementing the commitments made. A key measure of effectiveness will be the extent of 'losses prevented'.
	Although there are independent comparisons of tax and welfare fraud, there remains a need to develop robust comparisons to benchmark success in other areas. We expect our capacity to benchmark the effectiveness of measures will improve as more departments start to implement these commitments.

Fraud

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many full-time equivalent staff his Department has assigned to work on public sector fraud in each of the last three years.

Francis Maude: The National Fraud Authority estimates that £20.3 billion is lost every year to public sector fraud. For the first time my Department is taking effective, cross Government action to tackle this. This does not replace Departments own plans to address fraud.
	We estimate that, by 2015, the Government stands to save the taxpayer at least £4 billion per year by dealing with fraud, error and uncollected debt more effectively. In this context work on Fraud, Error and Debt was established in the Cabinet Office Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG) in 2011. Prior to this there were no staff assigned to tackling fraud in the Cabinet Office.
	ERG operates a flexible resourcing and development approach to staffing which allocates staff to time-bound assignments to ensure resources are best focused on priorities. In 2011, four full-time equivalent (FTE) staff were working specifically on Fraud, Error and Debt and this has since increased to nine FTE in May 2012. The resource on this project will shortly increase to 16.

Cancer: Drugs

David Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much has been spent by the NHS on drugs for cancer treatment in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Burstow: This information is not available in the format requested. Expenditure by health care condition is available through the national programme budgeting data collection. An estimate of the prescribing spend is incorporated in the overall figures but is not available separately.
	The programme budgeting data collection began in 2003-04 and the following table shows NHS gross expenditure on cancer and tumours for England from 2003-04 to 2010-11.
	
		
			 Cancers and tumours 
			  Gross expenditure (£ billion) 
			 2003-04 3.39 
			 2004-05 3.77 
			 2005-06 4.30 
			 2006-07 4.35 
			 2007-08 4.96 
			 2008-09 5.13 
			 2009-10 5.86 
			 2010-11 5.81 
			 Notes: 1. Expenditure figures are calculated using PCT and strategic health authority programme budgeting returns and Department of Health resource accounts data. Figures will include an estimation of special health authority expenditure. 2. In order to improve data quality, continual refinements have been made to the programme budgeting data calculation methodology since the first collection in 2003-04. The underlying data which support programme budgeting data are also subject to yearly changes. Caution is therefore advised when using programme budgeting data to draw conclusions on the change in spending patterns between years. 3. Figures include expenditure across all sectors. Disease specific expenditure do not include expenditure on general practitioner contracts but do include prescribing expenditure. 4. Calculating programme budgeting data is complex and not all healthcare activity or services can be classified directly to a programme budgeting category or care setting. When it is not possible to reasonably estimate a programme budgeting category, expenditure is classified as 'Other: Miscellaneous'. 5. The England level expenditure on cancer and tumours fell between 2009-10 and 2010-11. This is due to changes in the collection methodology. The amount of expenditure allocated to the 'Other Miscellaneous' category increased substantially in 2010-11, which means less expenditure is allocated to the individual programme categories. Therefore it is not possible to make a direct comparison between 2009-10 and 2010-11. Source: Annual primary care trust (PCT) programme budgeting financial returns. 
		
	
	In “Improving Outcomes: A Strategy for Cancer”, published on 12 January 2011, we highlighted the vital role that information has to play in driving up the quality of services and outcomes and we are committed to improving the quality, transparency and availability of cancer data. From April 2012 we have mandated the collection of chemotherapy data. In time, this data collection will enable us to undertake more sophisticated analyses around the cost of cancer treatment.

Health and Social Care Act 2012

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what meetings (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department had with (i) the Scottish Government and (ii) others on provisions relating to professional regulation in the Health and Social Care Act 2012 prior to its receiving Royal Assent; on what dates such meetings took place; and who was present.

Anne Milton: Department of Health Ministers and Scottish Ministers have not met specifically to discuss the Health and Social Care Act 2012, although there have been meetings between officials.
	Between July 2010 and April 2012, departmental Ministers and officials discussed the professional regulation provisions at Part 7 of the Health and Social Care Act with a wide range of individuals and organisations.
	The Department would incur a disproportionate cost in providing information setting out the specific dates on which meetings took place and who was present.

Hepatitis

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in Lewisham East constituency have been (a) screened for, (b) diagnosed with and (c) treated for hepatitis C in the last five years.

Anne Milton: The information requested is not available.
	Information on laboratory reports of hepatitis C diagnoses by region; national estimates of numbers of patients treated for hepatitis C; and information on sentinel surveillance of hepatitis C testing are contained in the Health Protection Agency's most recent annual report on “Hepatitis C in the UK”, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.

Hepatitis

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department is providing on hepatitis C to directors of public health in local authorities.

Anne Milton: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently developing public health guidance for healthcare professionals and the national health service on promoting and offering hepatitis C (and hepatitis B) testing to those at risk.
	It will, be the responsibility of NICE and Public Health England to publish guidance for directors of public health on issues like hepatitis C.

Hepatitis

Heidi Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to increase screening for hepatitis C in areas of high prevalence.

Anne Milton: There are a range of initiatives to help increase the detection and diagnosis of hepatitis C in those at risk of infection:
	Improving access to hepatitis C testing for injecting drug users and prisoners through increased screening in drug services and prisons;
	Grant-funding from the Department to the Hepatitis C Trust for projects to offer community pharmacy-based and mobile outreach testing for hepatitis C in high prevalence areas in collaboration with local national health service organisations and their partners;
	Guidance from the Department for the NHS on hepatitis C testing, backed up by dedicated websites aimed at the general public, the south Asian community and healthcare professionals on NHS Choices, with further public health guidance under development by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence; and
	Development of a two-part Royal College of General Practitioners certificate on the detection, diagnosis and management of hepatitis C and hepatitis B in primary care—funded by the Department through the Health Protection Agency.

Hospices

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 1 May 2012, Official Report, column 543W, on hospices, whether the £720,000 for new services in 2012-13 in addition to the annual revenue grant of £10 million is for (a) capital or (b) revenue expenditure; how it will be allocated; and if he will make a statement.

Anne Milton: The additional £721,000 for children and young people's hospices' is revenue. It is for hospice services that have come into being in the last three years and will be used to further the aims in “Better Care: Better Lives, Improving outcomes and experiences for children, young people and their families living with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions”, a copy of which has already been placed in the Library. Applications will be open to providers of new children's hospice services, who are not already in receipt of revenue funding from the existing Children's Hospice and Hospice at Home grant of £10 million. The Department will publish this month, information about the process and eligibility criteria for the new grant.

Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs Advisory Committee

Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 16 April 2012, Official Report, column 137W, on Safety of Bloods, Tissues and Organs Advisory Committee, when he expects that the minutes from the Joint Blood Transfusion Services and Health Protection Agency Professional Advisory Committee, which are referred to in the SaBTO minutes of 9 March 2012 will be published.

Anne Milton: The minutes of the March 2012 meeting of the Joint UK Blood Transfusion Services/Health Protection Agency Professional Advisory Committee (JPAC) will be published after they have been approved at JPAC's next meeting arranged for 28 June 2012.

Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs Advisory Committee

Paul Beresford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 16 April 2012, Official Report, column 137W, on Safety of Bloods, Tissues and Organs Advisory Committee, if he will publish the redacted data which is not commercially sensitive from both the SaBTO minutes of 9 March 2012, entitled Importation of Fresh Frozen Plasma: Effectiveness and cost effectiveness and the paper published alongside those minutes.

Anne Milton: The redacted data in the minutes, and its accompanying paper, are either commercially sensitive or relate to ongoing research studies. Data related to ongoing studies will be published when the studies have been completed and they have been reviewed by the independent scientific Advisory Committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs.

Apprentices

Gordon Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when he expects his Department's report on the accessibility of apprenticeships to be published.

John Hayes: During 2011 the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned Peter Little, OBE to produce a report on creating an inclusive apprenticeship offer. Mr Little submitted a comprehensive report earlier this year and the National Apprenticeship Service published the full report on its website on 11 May. A link to the report is as follows:
	www.apprenticeships.org.uk/News-Media/Latest-News/Article140.aspx
	The National Apprenticeship Service has been working with the Skills Funding Agency, BIS, DfE and others to consider Mr Little's recommendations alongside outcomes from the recent diversity pilots. An action plan, to be published this summer will set out further steps to encourage more people with disabilities or learning difficulties to undertake apprenticeships and to provide better support for those who do.

Business: Government Assistance

Stephen Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what support his Department has offered to (a) new and (b) existing small businesses in (i) Jarrow constituency, (ii) South Tyneside, (iii) the North East and (iv) nationally to assist with adverse economic conditions.

Mark Prisk: We want to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business, and for the next decade to be the most entrepreneurial and dynamic in Britain's history. That is why, in January, the Prime Minister launched “Business in You”, a major year-long campaign, to inspire people to realise their business ambitions and to highlight the range of support available for start-ups and growing businesses.
	We recognise that these are challenging times for both new and existing businesses and we have introduced a range of measures to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the UK:
	Ensuring SMEs can access the support and advice they need to start and grow
	We have transformed the way that we enable people to access the information, guidance and advice they need to start and grow a business. We have put in place a range of services including;
	An improved www.businesslink.gov.uk website including: a new Growth and Improvement Service and “My New Business”, a comprehensive start-up service.
	A Business Link Helpline which will support those who are unable to access the internet.
	A mentoring portal www.mentorsme.co.uk providing an easy route to find experienced business mentors.
	Started to introduce the new Business Coaching for Growth service, providing high quality coaching support for up to 10,000 SMEs a year with high growth potential.
	Ensuring businesses can access the finance they need
	Ensuring the flow of credit to viable SMEs is essential for supporting growth and is a core priority for this Government. Government has:
	Launched the National Loan Guarantee Scheme: up to £20 billion of guarantees for bank funding will be available over two years allowing banks to offer lower cost lending to SMEs.
	Increased the funds available to invest through the Business Finance Partnership (BFP) to £1.2 billion. Government has invited the first round of proposals to help businesses access non-bank finance through the BFP, and will allocate £100 million of the BFP to invest through non-traditional lending channels.
	Announced the continuation of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme until 2014/15, providing, subject to demand, over £2 billion in total over the next four years.
	Continuation of the Government's Enterprise Capital Funds programme, increasing our commitment by £200 million over the next four years, providing for more than £300 million of venture capital investment to address the equity gap for early stage innovative SMEs.
	Announced that we will pilot the best way to introduce a programme of start-up loans to help young people set up and grow their own businesses.
	Encouraging Business Angel investment through a new £50 million Business Angel Co-Investment Fund.
	Welcomed the report of the industry review of non-bank lending chaired by Tim Breedon and will take forward its recommendations over the course of this year, including: considering how to simplify access to Government support for smaller businesses; encouraging prompt payment by larger firms; and supporting industry work to remove barriers to alternative sources of finance.
	The Regional Growth Fund is a £2.4 billion fund operating across England from 2011 to 2015. It supports projects and programmes that lever private sector investment creating economic growth and sustainable employment. The Regional Growth Fund is investing £154.6 million in the North East by supporting 76 projects through Round 1 and Round 2. These projects are creating 14,012 direct jobs, and 27,167 indirect jobs.
	Ensuring that regulation supports business growth
	Introduced a 'one-in, one-out' rule whereby no new regulations which impose costs on businesses can be brought in without regulation of an equivalent value being removed.
	Introduced a three-year moratorium on new domestic regulation affecting micro businesses and genuine start-ups.
	The Red Tape Challenge is tackling the stock of regulation via a comprehensive thematic review which aims to identify regulations that could be removed, simplified or done in a different way. By the end of December 2011 we had scrapped or simplified over 600 regulations.
	Reforming the way in which regulations are implemented, including a review of regulators to ensure enforcement arrangements are appropriate and proportionate. Government will also launch sector-based reviews of regulation to ensure it is enforced at the lowest possible cost to business.
	To reduce barriers to businesses taking on new staff Government has announced significant deregulation of employment law, including increasing the unfair dismissal qualifying period from one to two years.
	Encouraging exporting SMEs
	Government will spend £35 million to double, from 25,000 to 50,000, the number of SMEs that UKTI supports a year by 2015. Many components of the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) product are aimed at SMEs:
	“Passport to Export” is a trade development programme offering new and inexperienced exporters help and support to build the capability to start exporting proactively and make their first visit to an export market. Launched in 2001, it has helped around 14,000 SMEs as of January 2012.
	“Gateway to Global Growth” offers experienced SME exporters the opportunity to increase their exporting skills and awareness of what is on offer from UKTI and private sector suppliers. The aim is to help them enter more difficult markets or expand in existing ones.
	“Market Visit Support” provides assistance to new to export and/or new to market SMEs visiting overseas markets, individually or in groups as part of their trade development process.
	Budget 2012 set out an ambition to more than double annual UK exports to £1 trillion by 2020 through additional measures including expanding the overseas role of UK Export Finance to enable it to develop finance packages that could help UK exporters secure opportunities identified through UKTI's High Value Opportunities programme; helping secure temporary private sector office space overseas for new UK exporters in high growth countries where such services are difficult to obtain; and continuing to increase UK Export Finance's regional presence in the UK to support SMEs seeking trade finance.
	In addition to this national support, the North Eastern Local Enterprise Partnership was one of the first LEPs to be awarded an enterprise zone. Benefits include enhanced capital allowances, a simplified planning regime, a business rate discount worth up to £275,000 over a five year period, and Government support to ensure that super-fast broadband is rolled out throughout the zone.
	More specifically, officials have worked closely with the North East Access to Finance organisation to promote their portfolio of business improvement products and recently spoke at an event for over 80 manufacturing businesses within South Tyneside to make them aware of the Regional Growth Fund and the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain Initiative.

Higher Education: Standards

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require Quality Assurance Agency audits to be carried out in respect of all designated higher education providers of courses where due diligence checks are required.

David Willetts: The Government has set out in the Higher Education White Paper and the associated technical consultation, its intention that all providers that access student support funding will, in future, be subject to the same standards for quality, dispute resolution, information, access (if charging above the basic tuition charge), financial sustainability, reformed student number controls and tuition charge caps.
	Further details on how these proposals will be taken forward, including possible legislative options, will be announced shortly.

New Businesses: Young People

Alok Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many start-up loans he expects to make to young people seeking to set up a new business as part of his Department's pilot scheme.

Mark Prisk: Budget 2012 announced a programme of enterprise loans to help young people set up and grow their own businesses, with funding for a £10 million pilot programme in 2012/13.
	The total number of loans awarded will depend on the value of each loan. Rather than set an arbitrary value for every loan Government wants the lending decision and the value of loan to be based upon the business case developed by each applicant and approved by an independent and expert panel.
	As a guide we anticipate average loan value of about £2,500 across the loan book.

New Businesses: Young People

Alok Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the average amount of money that will be available to a young person making an application for a start-up loan from his Department.

Mark Prisk: As a guide we anticipate average loan value of about £2,500 across the loan book.
	Rather than set an arbitrary value for every loan Government wants the lending decision and the value of loan to be based upon the business case developed by each applicant and approved by an independent and expert panel.

Paternity Leave

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the (a) number of fathers who will take up the new parental leave proposed in the Modern Workplaces consultation and (b) duration of the new parental leave that will be taken by fathers; and what evidence was used to inform these estimates.

Norman Lamb: The Government will announce the direction of the policy in the Government's response due to be published later in 2012. An updated impact assessment will also be issued in parallel.

Postgraduate Education: Finance

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what plans his Department has to review the adequacy of financial support available to postgraduate students.

David Willetts: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills provides funding to the Research Councils and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to support postgraduate education.
	We have asked HEFCE to review participation in postgraduate study, as part of a longer term assessment and evaluation of the impact of undergraduate funding changes. Until the findings from this become clear, HEFCE will take steps as far as possible to support postgraduate provision. HEFCE provides funding to higher education institutions (HEIs) in England to meet some of their costs for providing taught postgraduate courses and for supervising students in the first three years of a postgraduate research degree programme. In 2012-13, HEFCE provision for research degree programme supervision is £240 million, and for taught postgraduate provision is estimated at £135 million, similar levels to 2011-12.
	The Research Councils support around 19,000 doctoral students around the UK and plan to invest around £340 million in postgraduate education during 2012-13. The Research Councils periodically review their training and support mechanisms.

Pensioners: British Nationals Abroad

Michael Connarty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the costs and benefits to the Exchequer of unfreezing frozen pensions for British pensioners living permanently abroad.

Mark Hoban: The Government believes the current indexation regime strikes a fair balance between those who currently pay in to the National Insurance Fund and those who receive its benefits and has no current plans to change the indexation of pensions paid to British pensioners living permanently abroad. However, the Government keeps all aspects of pensions policy under review.

Israel: Palestinians

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department is taking to investigate the demolition of the children's playground at the Madaa creative centre in Silwan, near Jerusalem.

Alistair Burt: We have concerns about the threatened and actual demolition of Palestinian homes and buildings in the town of Silwan, east Jerusalem. We are urging Israel to desist from the demolitions and evictions, which we consider to be contrary to Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law; harmful to the peace process; as well as causing unnecessary suffering to ordinary Palestinians.
	I raised our concerns about Silwan with the Israeli ambassador to London on 23 February and the broader issue of demolitions with Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Meridor on 19 March. Officials from the British embassy in Tel Aviv lobbied the Jerusalem municipality on 21 February about the specific issue of the demolition of the children's playground at the Madaa creative centre. They were told that the Municipality had no plans to conduct wide-scale demolitions in the immediate future, which is welcome.

Israel: Palestinians

Mike Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department has taken to encourage the Israeli government either to bring charges against or release Palestinian prisoners held in administrative detention.

Alistair Burt: I have regularly raised our concerns about the use of administrative detention by Israel, including with Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Ayalon on 27 February, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Meridor on 19 March and the Israeli ambassador to London on 8 May, The UK ambassador to Israel also raised the issue with Israeli Foreign Minister Lieberman on 10 May.
	We continue to encourage the Israeli authorities to comply with their obligations under international law, including in their policies on detention and the treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

United Arab Emirates

Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consular support his Department has provided to Peter Margetts since his imprisonment in Dubai.

Alistair Burt: When a British national is detained overseas, our main priority in this regard is to check on their welfare. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the British embassy in Dubai have provided Mr Margetts and his family with consular assistance since his detention, and will continue to do so. This assistance has included visiting him regularly and monitoring his welfare and case closely. I wrote to you on 10 May on Mr Margetts' case in more detail.